I mentioned where I work that we should all be given CPR/Heimlich maneuver training. I was told that we will not be given the training as it opens the company to law suits. It was in fact, discouraged. We all know, after all, that money is more important than is life. I need to get off of this soapbox before I get myself all riled up about the organization I work for.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

Then bring it up at a town meeting. If your fire department is in charge of the ambulance, then they already have the people who are qualified to teach it. All paramedics have advanced training for not only being qualified to apply such maneuvers, but to teach it. But it may be different from state to state. The biggest cost would be for the cost of the dummies for the students.

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Illegitimi non carborundum!
I don't want my last words to be, "I wish I had spent more time doing housework"

Chief, I think your company just doesn't want to be held responsible for that one idiot who does it wrong and injures someone. If they didn't pay for or encourage the training, then it isn't their fault.

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May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.
Robert A. Heinlein

Ah, but grasshoppah, can you take a loaded gun out of someone's hand when they are pointing it at you? 'Tis an easy thing to do. Hope I never have to, and you never have to either. But I do practice the technique. Judo is a good thing. My favorite throw is called Hariah Goshe. Look it up on YouTube. Many of the Judo throws are pretty amazing, and quite entertaining to watch.

Heimlich, I've reviewed and have had training. Resuscitation, well the rules have changed since my last training class. I need to get that under my belt again.

Our local fire station does free courses in CPO and emergency first aid. Sadly, the take up is not good.

__________________Don’t look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Stomp along and switch the bl**dy thing on yourself.

Chief, I think your company just doesn't want to be held responsible for that one idiot who does it wrong and injures someone. If they didn't pay for or encourage the training, then it isn't their fault.

As PF can tell you, often in order to apply CPR properly, you often end up breaking the ribs. And as Poo has told me, sometimes one of those broken ribs can puncture a lung. It is considered one of the complications of a heart attack. It has happened to Poo more than once.

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Illegitimi non carborundum!
I don't want my last words to be, "I wish I had spent more time doing housework"

I sent an email to Poo and asked him if he ever broke ribs when doing CPR.
Here is his answer.

"Yes. All the time. It's not that you necessarily break the ribs (which can happen) but you separate the cartilage holding the ribs attached to the sternum. So it's actually a sternal/rib separation rather than actual broken ribs. And it hurts!!!

But I have also broken ribs outright doing CPR as when trying to do it on a person being carried down stairs, trapped in a car, etc is problematic and hands slip."

For those here who have had that happen to them, he further states,

"Should be glad he lived to tell the tale. 95% don't."

So if you have a heart attack and come to with very sore bones, be grateful and remember that figure. 95%. That is a lot. I have even had cops tell me that anytime they have had to do CPR, they also lose most of them. But for those 5% that make it, you are just grateful that you were there to make a difference. So you are alive and someone is grateful that you are.

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Illegitimi non carborundum!
I don't want my last words to be, "I wish I had spent more time doing housework"

I mentioned where I work that we should all be given CPR/Heimlich maneuver training. I was told that we will not be given the training as it opens the company to law suits. It was in fact, discouraged. We all know, after all, that money is more important than is life. I need to get off of this soapbox before I get myself all riled up about the organization I work for.

I recertified within this past year and the instructor played that very song to help us keep on beat. He said along the lines of "are you going to break ribs? Most likely. But better to heal from broken ribs and possibly save a life......"

__________________Grandchildren fill the space in your heart you never knew was empty.

When I was a swim instructor and lifeguard in Canada many milleniums ago, we were only to do mouth-to-mouth, and absolutely no chest compressions, though the rest of our training was more like that of paramedics. I've since been certified in CPR, recertifying through the school district. Free classes offered by the district are taught by our school nurses.